French presidential candidate Fillon's popularity dips: poll

PARIS (Reuters) - Some 61 percent of voters have a negative opinion of French presidential election candidate Francois Fillon, according to an opinion poll carried out after the publication of allegations that he paid his wife for a fake job.

The Odoxa poll shows 38 percent have a good opinion of Fillon. That is a drop of 16 percentage points since a poll carried out early November by another polling agency, Ifop-Fiducial, Odoxa said in a note.

It's a four points popularity drop since an Odoxa poll published on January 8, the note said.

Satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine reported on Wednesday that Penelope Fillon had been paid some 600,000 euros ($641,640.00)for many years of employment as a parliamentary assistant to Fillon, then to his replacement as a lawmaker and also for work at a cultural journal.